Where life’s a beach (and then you die)

WITH ONE carefully-worded Government statement, the list of destinations where British holidaymakers now fear to tread grew a little longer yesterday. After the terrorist attacks in Bali, the Foreign Office warned that Thailand, and especially the exotic island of Phuket, where 600,000 Britons travel each year, were potential targets of another atrocity.

It dealt a glancing blow to the quick-fix, carefree holiday culture that for decades we have taken for granted. From Washington to Moscow, Bali to North Africa, virtually nowhere in the world seems safe from some kind of terror campaign.

It is impossible to predict where the extremists will strike next, or whether the target will be hard or soft. There is no longer such a thing as an “immune” country, merely whether…